Round balers are well known in the art and have been used for some time to produce bales from hay or other harvested crop into round bales. Such balers have an expandable baling chamber and compression elements, which surround that baling chamber. The compression elements comprise a variety of rolls and often a compression belt that partially defines the expandable baler chamber. Typically, multiple compression belts arranged in side by side relation are utilized, such as four compression belts side by side in one application.
Examples of such round balers are shown, for example, in U.S. Publication Number 2013/0032047 to Marques et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,969 to Wagstaff et al., the entire disclosures of which are incorporated by reference.
Some of the rolls act as guides and are freely running, while other rolls are driven to impart a driving engagement movement to the endless belt. Often, in prior art systems, the outer perimeter of the driven roll is made of volcanized rubber, which also happens to engage the inner rubber periphery of the compression belts. Heretofore, these compression belts and rolls have suffered from premature wear and failure.